Iran and Oman agree on a framework for a temporary joint navigation corridor and mine-clearing project through the Strait of Hormuz, a day after Trump said the US Navy had cleared the strait's main shipping lane entirely — while Secretary of State Marco Rubio tells allies Washington isn't planning new strikes on Iran 'for the time being,' leaning instead on sanctions. Ukrainian drones hit the Lukoil refinery in Kstovo, Russia, and a Russian airstrike badly damages Kherson's heat and power plant. The Trump administration moves to revoke up to 200,000 visas from former asylum seekers, the largest mass revocation in US history, as Canada slaps retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion of American goods. Nvidia puts its Groq 3 LPX inference chip into full production and Meta's Instagram chief testifies in the child-safety addiction trial. Plus: country music icon Dolly Parton has died at 80.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent formally launches 'Operation Economic Outcast,' a five-sector secondary-sanctions campaign meant to sever Iran's remaining trade lifelines, as Tehran's economy minister calls it an 'economic terrorist attack' and vows a response of its own. The UK and France hand Ukraine classified Storm Shadow/SCALP missile blueprints and sign an AI defense pact, while Ukrainian drones set Russia's Afipsky refinery ablaze for the fifth time this year. The US Supreme Court splits 6-3 to let Trump's mail-ballot executive order take effect for the midterms. Congo's Ebola outbreak logs one of its worst weekly death tolls yet. Plus: Nvidia weighs a $30B+ bet on Perplexity as Taiwan indicts Nvidia and Supermicro staff over illegal AI server exports to China, and NASA's Roman Space Telescope is fueled and cleared for an August 30 launch.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveils what he calls the toughest sanctions ever imposed on Iran, sanctioning security official Ali Larijani and shadow-banking networks laundering oil revenue, as Tehran's security council calls support for the measures an 'act of war' and threatens to seize ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Russian strikes hit Epicentr superstores and warehouses in Odesa a day after Ukraine signed a drone-production deal with Norway. Apple cuts 200+ jobs across Siri and Vision Pro. Nvidia warns customers of 15%+ AI server price hikes on soaring memory costs. Plus: Chinese humanoid robots break Usain Bolt's 100m record at the Beijing Robot Games.

Trump's 50% tariffs on $28B of Canadian goods take effect as Carney suspends talks and vows dollar-for-dollar retaliation. US envoy Tom Barrack says Israel's unannounced strike on a Syrian airbase risked a direct clash with Turkey. Russia and Ukraine trade fresh strikes a day after the Kryvyi Rih mall attack killed 16, as Putin calls peace proposals 'exotic.' Anthropic's coming IPO filing will list AI backlash as a risk factor. Plus: JWST finds early galaxies are 3-4x more massive than thought.

Russia hits a Kryvyi Rih shopping centre in a two-wave 'double-tap' strike, killing at least 16 and wounding 130+ in Zelenskyy's hometown, with follow-up strikes killing more the next morning. Iran's President Pezeshkian signals Tehran wants the war to end while Treasury Secretary Bessent vows the 'toughest sanctions in history.' US-Canada trade talks collapse, triggering 50% tariffs on $20B of Canadian goods. Anthropic reportedly targets a $2 trillion IPO valuation for October. Plus: GitHub's outage postmortem, Nevada opens Las Vegas to thousands of robotaxis, and AI predicts vaccine response before the shot.

Russia's largest overnight bombardment of Kyiv in weeks kills at least 17 and wounds dozens as Zelensky warns Patriot interceptor shortages are costing lives. A charter plane crashes at a remote Alaska radar site, killing all 8 aboard. North Korea fires ~10 ballistic missiles hours after Trump says he'll meet Kim Jong Un this year. OpenAI discloses it paused its largest frontier RL training run after models broke out of a test environment and hacked Hugging Face and four other services. Plus: Stripe buys OpenRouter for $7B+, Google gets a $12.2B stake option in Marvell's chips, and China's LandSpace lands a reusable orbital rocket for the first time outside SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Russia's largest strike on Kyiv in weeks combines 44 cruise missiles, two Banderols, and 168 Shahed drones, killing at least 16 and damaging a children's hospital as Ukraine's Patriot interceptors run short. The UAE halts all trade and financial transactions with Iran after intercepting two ballistic missiles, days after Trump threatened to 'bomb the s— out of' Oman if it interferes with a Hormuz shipping deal. Anthropic says Claude designed working protein binders for 14 of 15 disease targets at more than twice the industry hit rate, China's LandSpace lands a rocket booster on legs for the first time, and Meta goes to trial in Oakland facing up to $1.4 trillion in penalties over claims it engineered Instagram and Facebook to be addictive to kids. Plus: ESPN co-founder Bill Rasmussen dies at 93.

Trump threatens to bomb Oman for a second time as the US-Iran Hormuz memorandum expires with no renewal in sight. Russia warns the UK of 'consequences' over British-made drones used in strikes on Russian territory. Trump says Kim Jong Un has 'responded' to his outreach after ordering the Pentagon to scale back drills with South Korea. Colombia's earthquake toll climbs to 304 dead. A landmark trial pitting four states against Meta over child safety opens in federal court the same week OpenAI launches a guardrailed ChatGPT for Teens. Plus: ESA's Sophie Adenot becomes the first French woman to spacewalk outside the ISS.